An Owl's Rise

With the beginning bustle of the day Evelyn stood at attention and waited for the other owls to come by.

She was in a pretty bad location that did not see much traffic, but it was not long before a few owls came flying down.

'Yep, looks like it is all just lo tier awakened ranks to start with. Those with the fewest number of credits are going to be coming here where everything is cheaper.' Evelyn observed.

Most of these owls did not even give Evelyn's new shop a glance and instead went for the ones that they already frequented.

They knew the quality of the items they bought and were not out to try and find a better deal right now.

A couple of more curious owls came and checked out Evelyn's shop, but none of them even approached her and asked any questions.

Certainly, they could see what the types, quality, and prices of her potions were, but they were not going to simply buy them based on this information.

Unlike the first floor the cost of the potions were quite a bit pricier here and fewer owls were willing to risk buying a product that was worse than advertised or possibly even wholly ineffective.

That was why a new store normally did not get much business until the few that did take the risk bought from them and word of mouth spread.

Yet while Evelyn expected this to be the case for her, she had actually made quite an impression on the first floor and some of the awakened rank owls that used to buy her lower grade potions soon noticed her new shop.

'Oh, it is that group.'

Seeing a cluster of owls coming her way Evelyn recognized them.

Among them was the owl who first bought from her when she still did business on the first floor and had brought her entire group to buy from her.

'I believe her name was Mimi, though I did not catch the names of any of the other owls in their faction.' Evelyn thought as they approached.

"So, you really have set up your shop again. And on the second floor no less. You certainly are full of surprises." The leader said.

"Yes, a lot happened, and I managed to evolve. I am sorry that I was closed down for so long, but I should be up and running much more consistently now." Evelyn informed them.

After that each one of the owls bought the maximum number of items they could. Already trusting in the quality of Evelyn's brews.

"I see that you only have the basic mid-grade items such as healing potions and magical replenishment pills for sale. But might you perhaps soon be selling other types as well as stocking up some low grades of a higher quality again?" Mimi, her first ever customer asked once she had completed her sale.

It seemed she had caught onto Evelyn's plan by only having the basics but was certainly interested in everything else.

Naturally Evelyn had planned on introducing new items slowly and eventually putting out low grade items of a higher quality than what she used to sell on the first floor, but if she already had a loyal customer base, then perhaps she could accelerate her plans.

"Currently I do not have anything else in stock other than these types of items, but I certainly do plan on making others in the future. Next week I should have at least two new types of items." Evelyn said.

This elicited a positive response from the two dozen owls that had come to buy her goods and once their business was finished, they happily exited the hall.

After that a few more owls that had noticed the commotion came by and purchased what Evelyn had to offer.

They were naturally shocked by how low her prices were, and some were afraid that it was a scam and left without buying any, but others took their chances and bought from her.

'Wow to think that I can sell these things for six thousand credits a pop. And they are not even the best quality I can make. Mid-grade items really are that much better than low grade ones.' Evelyn thought as she looked at the rising number of credits on her identification cuff.

Even her rarest and best items on the first floor did not even go for a thousand credits, but that was simply the difference in effectiveness.

Take for example a low-grade healing potion which was what she had been selling before.

Even at the highest quality it would be difficult to heal a fractured bone with one and would likely take several.

Yet even a mid-grade healing potion that was only at about thirty percent of what the potion's peak effectiveness could reach was able to fully heal a shatter bone or damaged organs.

For anything worse though like healing a missing leg or wing they would need high grade potions but those could typically only be made by tyrant rank beasts and above and cost an exorbitant amount.

The day swiftly went by for Evelyn and her business was far better than she had anticipated.

A number of the peak fiend beast ranked owls she used to sell to had also evolved while she was in her coma and when they learned that she had opened a new shop they came by and made some purchases.

This was a surprise to many of the other owls with stores around her, as it was practically unheard of for a new shop to do so well on the first day.

However, it was also a shock to Evelyn, and she had not realized how much of an impression her first floor shop had made.

'I suppose that going missing for so long actually helped me out. A lot of my former customers have now evolved and can purchase items on this floor now. Though they do not have too many credits only having recently made it to the awakened rank. But my potions are already as cheap as they can get. Thanks to all of that, my sales have easily been twenty times better than I anticipated.' Evelyn thought with an uncontrollable smile as her first day ended.